1. Technical Field
An organic anti-reflective polymer and its preparation method are disclosed. The organic anti-reflective polymer prevents back reflection of lower film layers and eliminates standing wave that occurs as a result of thickness changes of the photoresist and light, in a lithographic process using 248 nm KrF and 193 nm ArF laser light sources for fabricating ultrafine patterns. More particularly, the organic anti-reflective polymer of the present invention is useful for fabricating ultrafine patterns of 64M, 256M, 1 G, and 4 G DRAM semiconductor devices. A composition containing such organic anti-reflective polymer, an anti-reflective coating layer made therefrom and a method of preparation thereof are also disclosed.
2. Description of the Background Art
In a fabrication process of ultrafine patterns for preparing semiconductor devices, standing waves and reflective notching inevitably occur due to the optical properties of lower film layer on the wafer and due to thickness changes of photosensitive film. In addition, there is another problem associated with the CD (critical dimension) alteration caused by diffracted and reflected light from the lower film layers. Thus, it has been suggested to introduce anti-reflective coating that enables preventing back reflection at a lower film layer by introducing organic material showing high absorbance at a wavelength range of the light employed as a light source.
Anti-reflective coatings are classified into inorganic and organic anti-reflective coatings depending upon the material used, or into absorptive and interfering anti-reflective coatings based on the operation mechanism. For microlithography using 1-line (365 nm wavelength) radiation, inorganic anti-reflective coatings are predominantly used, while TiN and amorphous carbon are used as an absorptive system and SiON is used as an interfering system.
In a fabrication process of ultrafine patterns using KrF laser, SiON has been mainly used as an inorganic anti-reflective film. However, in the case of an inorganic anti-reflective film, no material has been known which enables the control of the interference at 193 nm, the wavelength of light source. Thus, there has been great deal of efforts to employ an organic compound as an anti-reflective coating.
To be an effective organic anti-reflective coating, the following conditions must be satisfied. First, peeling of the photoresist layer due to the dissolution in a solvent must not take place when conducting a lithographic process. In order to achieve this goal, a molded coating must be designed to form a cross-linked structure without producing any chemical as a by-product. Second, chemicals such as acid or amine must not migrate into or out from the anti-reflective coating. This is because when acid migrates from anti-reflective coating, undercutting occurs at a lower part of the pattern while footing may occur when a base such as amine migrates. Third, the etching speed of the anti-reflective coating should be faster than that of the upper photosensitive film so as to facilitate etching process by using photosensitive film as a mask. Finally, the anti-reflective coating must be as thin as possible to an extent to sufficiently play a role as an anti-reflective coating.
The existing organic anti-reflective materials are mainly divided into two types: (1) polymers containing chromophore, cross-linking agent (single molecule) cross-linking the polymers and an additive (thermally variable oxidant); and (2) polymers which can cross link by themselves and contain chromophore and an additive (thermally variable oxidant). But these two types of anti-reflective material have a problem in that the control of k value is almost impossible because the content of the chromophore is defined according to the ratio as originally designed at the time of polymerization. Thus, if it is desired to change the k value, the material must be synthesized again.
A novel organic polymer for anti-reflective coating and its method of preparation are disclosed.
An anti-reflective coating composition comprising the aforementioned polymer and a preparation method thereof are also disclosed.
A semiconductor device on which a pattern is formed from such an anti-reflective coating by submicrolithography is also disclosed.
According to the present invention, the following compounds having Formulas 1 and 2, respectively are provided which can be used in an anti-reflective coating. 
The polymer of the above-structured Formula 1 is synthesized from the compound of the following Formula 10. 
In the above Formulas 1 to 3, Ra to Rc are each independently hydrogen or methyl; Ra to Rd, and R1 to R9 are each independently xe2x80x94H, xe2x80x94OH, xe2x80x94OCOCH3, xe2x80x94COOH, xe2x80x94CH2OH, alkyl having 1 to 5 carbon atoms or alkoxy alkyl having 1 to 5 carbon atoms; l, m and n each represents an integer selected from 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5; x, y, and z each represents mole fraction from 0.01 to 0.99; R10 and R11 are each independently straight or branched substituted C1-10alkoxy; and R12 is hydrogen or methyl.
The compound of Formula 2 is prepared by polymerizing (meth)acrolein to obtain poly(meth)acrolein followed by reacting the obtained polymeric product with branched or straight substituted alkyl alcohol having 1 to 10 carbon atoms.
In detail, (meth)acrolein is first dissolved in an organic solvent and added thereto a polymerization initiator to carry out polymerization under vacuum at a temperature ranging from about 60 to about 70xc2x0 C. for a time period ranging from about 4 to about 6 hours. Then, the obtained polymeric product is reacted with branched or straight substituted alkyl alcohol having 1 to 10 carbon atoms in the presence of trifluoromethylsulfonic acid as a catalyst at a room temperature for a time period ranging from about 20 to about 30 hours.
In the above process, suitable organic solvent is selected from the group consisting of tetrahydrofuran (THF), cyclohexanone, dimethylformanide, dimethylsulfoxide, dioxane, methylethylketone, benzene, toluene, xylene and mixtures thereof. As a polymerization initiator, it can be mentioned 2,2-azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN), benzoylperoxide, acetylperoxide, laurylperoxide, t-butylperacetate, t-butylhydroperoxide or di-t-butylperoxide. A preferred example of the said alkyl alcohol having 1 to 10 carbon atoms is ethanol or methanol.
A preferred compound of Formula 2 is selected from the group consisting of the compounds of the following Formulas 3 to 6. 
The above compounds of Formulas 3 to 6 are readily cured in the presence of acid and other polymers having alcohol group.
The polymer of Formula 1 is prepared by reacting 9-anthracene methyliminealkylacrylate monomer, hydroxyalkylacrylate monomer, and glycidylalkylacrylate monomer in an organic solvent and then polymerizing the obtained compound with a polymerization initiator. Any conventional organic solvent can be used in this process but a preferred solvent is selected from the group consisting of tetrahydrofuran, toluene, benzene, methylethylketone, dioxane and mixtures thereof. As a polymerization initiator, any conventional radical polymerization initiator can be used but it is preferred to use a compound selected from the group consisting of 2,2xe2x80x2-azobisisobutyronitrile, acetylperoxide, laurylperoxide, and t-butylperoxide. The above polymerization reaction is preferably carried out at a temperature ranging from about 50 to about 90xc2x0 C. and each of the monomers has a mole fraction ranging from about 0.01 to about 0.99.
An effective anti-reflective coating composition comprises a polymer of Formula 1 and a polymer of Formula 2.
Further, an effective anti-reflective coating composition comprises a polymer of Formula 1, a compound of Formula 2 and an anthracene derivative as an additive. Illustrative, non-limiting examples of the anthracene derivatives (hereinafter, xe2x80x9canthracene derivative additivexe2x80x9d) is selected from the group consisting of anthracene, 9-anthracenemethanol, 9-anthracenecarbonitrile, 9-antracene carboxylic acid, ditranol, 1,2,10-anthracentriol, anthraflavonic acid, 9-anthraldehydeoxime, 9-anthraldehyde, 2-amino-7-methyl-5-oxo-5H-[1]benzo-pyrano[2,3-b]pyridine-3-carbonitrile, 1-aminoanthraquinone, anthraquinone-2-carboxylic acid, 1,5-dihydroxyanthraquinone, anthrone, 9-anthryle trifluoro-methylketone, 9-alkylanthracene derivatives of the following Formula 7, 9-carboxylanthracene derivatives of the following Formula 8, 1-carboxylanthracene derivatives of the following Formula 9, and mixtures thereof. 
wherein, R1 to R5 are xe2x80x94H, xe2x80x94OH, xe2x80x94CH2OH or substituted or unsubstituted, straight or branched alkyl or alkoxyalkyl having 1 to 5 carbon atoms.
A preparation method of an organic anti-reflective coating which comprises the steps of dissolving a polymer of Formula 1 and a compound of Formula 2 in an organic solvent, filtering the obtained solution alone or in combination with at least one anthracene derivative additive as aforementioned, coating the filtrate on a lower layer and hard-baking the coated layer. More particularly, an example of the organic solvent used in this procedure includes ethyl 3-ethoxypropionate, methyl 3-methoxypropionate, cyclohexanone, and propyleneglycolmethylether acetate. It is preferred that the aforementioned solvent is used in an amount ranging from about 200 to about 5,000 wt. % based on the total weight of the anti-reflective coating resin used. The preferred temperature for hard-baking ranges from about 100 to about 300xc2x0 C.
A semiconductor device can be prepared from any of the aforementioned anti-reflective coating compositions disclosed above.
A monomer having a chromophore of high absorbance was first synthesized to enable for a polymer made therefrom to show a high absorbance at the wavelength of 248 nm. Further, in order to allow improved properties to a produced organic anti-reflective coating, such as good molding property, air-tightness, and dissolution resistance, an epoxy group was introduced to raise a cross linking reaction during a hard-baking step following a coating step. The obtained polymer is referred to as a primary polymer (the compound of Formula 1). In addition, a secondary polymer (the compound of Formula 2), a compound capable of forming a cross linkage upon the reaction with an alcohol group in resin was also synthesized to form a cross-linked product with the primary polymer by a thermal reaction.
In particular, the cross-linking agents used in the form of a polymer are designed to maximize the efficiency of the cross-linking reaction. Especially, it is possible to freely adjust the k value of the anti-reflective coating by controlling the proportion of the primary polymer.
Further, the anti-reflective coating resin has a good solubility in all of the hydrocarbon solvents while has a dissolution resistance in any of the solvents during a hard-baking step. In addition, no undercutting or footing is experienced in the fabrication process of patterns using the same. Especially, because the anti-reflective coating resin of the present invention is made from acrylate polymer which enables higher etching speed relative to that of the photosensitive film during etching process, the etching selectivity is improved.
The following examples are set forth to illustrate more clearly the principles and practice of the disclosure to a person skilled in the art. As such, they are not intended to be limiting, but are illustrative of certain preferred embodiments.